21 June 2010

Numbers 1
When it says “all who were able to go to war” I wonder if that meant that any who were males over twenty who were disabled from going to war for some reason would not be counted. The other possibility that I see is that “all who were able to go to war” describes the reason for why they only numbered males over age twenty.

I wondered at first at the order the tribes were ordered but I see that it is birth order by mother in the order that the mothers became wives (Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilpah) with Joseph’s two sons being numbered in their birthright order in his place.

I had wondered if the tribes would be larger for the older sons but that is not the case. Benjamin manages to be smaller even than his nephew, Ephriam, but Joseph, the eleventh of twelve by age is second only to Judah, the third of twelve by age.